Tela
by MissAustin
Summary: Being a Stark means three things. One, you're destined for misery. Two, you're going to be a genius. Three, you're going to be fantastic. Mary Stark is no exception. Eventual Steve/oc
1. Chapter 1

**_AN: I only claim Mary Stark and any unrecognizable characters . This story is a Steve Rogers love story but that won't happen for a while. This story is will follow the events of IM, the Avengers, and AOU._**

* * *

 _December 17th, 1991_

It was raining outside. Tony ran through the front door of his parents house just as a clap of thunder shook the sky. The lack of shrill cries was a terrifying sign. The room looked up at the sound and was surprised to find Tony dripping into a puddle on the expensive carpeting his mother had painstakingly picked out. Aunt Peggy's warm chocolate eyes widened. She stood as quickly as a seventy year old woman could, pushing past the two officers taking her statement to get to her godson.

"Tony-"

"What happened?"

She pressed her red painted lips together sharply. She paused a breath before speaking again. "There was a car accident. Another driver ran a red light. He reeked of scotch." Tony closed his eyes, taking it in. When he opened them he spoke with a fragility that didn't fit a seventeen year old boy with a MIT student ID.

"Both of them?"

"I'm sorry Tony." Her heart broke for her boy. Her beautiful, genius boy just like his father. "Oh love." As her hand skimmed his cheek Tony's eyes met hers with a new wave of urgency.

" What about Mary?"

He had never felt so alone as he did when the rest of the room was exchanging their own telling looks.

"Aunt Peggy, was she in the car?"

"Oh darling- "

"Was she in the car-"

As another clap of thunder shook through the house over the boom of Tony's yelling a whining cry drifted from upstairs. It was the most beautiful sound Tony had ever heard. His eyes widened as he looked up the staircase then to Peggy. She smiled gently at him, offering him an aprovitory nod. He dashed up the stairs after the sound.

He skidded to a stop midway down the hall in front of the door with a pale pink star pegged to it. He tiptoed into the room holding his breath. His eyes skimmed the room, roaming over white bins of plush animals, shelves crammed with little golden books, pink frames with cutesy sayings inside, and an array of glow in the stark stars stuck to the ceiling. He finally settled on the delicate pink crib centering the room. His heart lurched when he looked inside.

"Hi, Mary." He let out a shaky breath as he reached down to stroke his baby sister's peach fuzz head. "Hey, baby."

She looked up at him in confusion. She hadn't seen him in months; he'd skipped Thanksgiving, and it took a moment for her eight month old brain to recognize him. When she did though she lit up in a grin, smiling up at him with chubby pink cheeks and dark blue eyes. She had no idea that she had just become an orphan. She reached out to Tony with chubby fist as he sank to the floor next to her. He reached through the bars, letting her wrap one hand securely around his finger, and gripped the bars with his other.

"Sorry you had to wake up. There's a lot going on down there." He gestured back towards the door like she could understand him but she was too preoccupied with the mystery of his index finger. "There's a lot going on up here." He tapped against his forehead with his other index finger. Mary looked up at him startled at the sudden movement that ran through his other hand. He was shaking.

"It's just you and me now Mary." He didn't bother to push back stray lines of tears that ran down his cheeks. "Well I mean we've got Aunt Peggy and Uncle Obie. But we're Starks. You and me we're the only ones left"

He brushed away fresh tears with the heels of his palms."We've got to watch out for each other now Mar. We're gonna have to take of each other." He let out a wet laugh when Mary began nodding like she understood every word he was saying. Really he knew she was probably just checking out the moon and comet shaped mobile over their heads.

"I'm gonna take care of you though Mary. Don't you worry kid. I'm gonna take care of you."


	2. Chapter 2

_April 6th, 2005._

Mary took in the man made cosmos with wide eyes. She looked like a little doll in the adult sized seats of the New York City Planetarium, not a place designed for six year olds. But unlike the few other slobbery, sticky rugrats who had been dragged there by clueless babysitters and well meaning parents Mary sat up straight in her pale blue baby doll dress and matching cardigan cousin Angie had helped her pick out as the animatronic voice faded out. She stared up at the ceiling in aw still hoping for stars to appear and amaze her once more. When they didn't she whirled around in her seat with asteroid sized eyes.

"Tony, Tony did you see that! It was incredible! Can we watch it again?! Can we, can we?!"

Tony jumped awake with a start. He resisted the urge to clutch his head at the giddy shouts of his little sister. Instead pushing his black sunglasses further up his nose. "No, uh not right now baby."

"Oh." She tossed herself back so she was sitting normally in her chair. She looked from the screen to her brother expectantly. "So what are we going to do next?"

"Uh, why don't we go get some ice cream? I've got to talk to you about something anyway." They walked out of the planetarium hand in hand. Nothing was said for three blocks when Tony finally managed to swallow his nerves at addressing a six year old.

"So Mary?"

"Yes Tony?" He cleared his throat and fiddled with his glasses once more so he wouldn't have to look at her.

"You know that Aunt Peggy hasn't been feeling well lately?"

"Ya. She forgets a lot. Yesterday she thought I was cousin Angie! But that doesn't make sense because cousin Angie is a big person and I'm a little person still. Just for now though! I'm going to be tall like you as soon as I'm big!" She stressed like it was the most important thing in the world and Tony wouldn't love her if she didn't grow to be 5'9.

Why should she think otherwise though? All she knew for sure was that she's only sees her big brother three times a year. Her birthday, Christmas, and if she's lucky Thanksgiving. He's an important inventor though, he has lots of important things he has to do so it was okay if that meant sometimes he couldn't come visit her very often; or even if one of those three times was over the computer. That's why him surprising her with a trip to the planetarium was so exciting.

"Ya right, well, you see Aunt Peggy is

...sick."

"Does she have a cold?"

"No she-"

"Does she have pneumonia?"

"What? No she's-"

"Does she have Tuberculosis?"

"No! Kid listen." He sighed dropping down next to her. "Aunt Peggy has Alzheimer's. It's a brain disease that makes it hard for her to remember."

Mary looked like he told her that the tooth fairy wasn't real but recovered quickly. She was probably more maturely capable than a six year old should be but she was a Stark.

"Will she get better?"

"No, Mary she's not gonna get better."

"But when someone's sick they go to the doctor and the doctor makes them better."

"Ya but the doctor's don't know how to fix her yet. So until they do she's going to go stay at a hospital for people her age that are sick."

"Like a nursing home?"

Smart kid.

"Ya, exactly. Like a nursing home." He climbed back to his feet and dragged her with down the street. "But if Aunt Peggy goes to a nursing home where am I going to live?" "Well um, thats part of what I needed to talk to you about. While Peggy's gone you're going to come live with me from now on."

"I'm going to live with you now?!" She looked up at Tony with big green eyes like carbon copies of their mom's. He looked away uncomfortably. "In California and everything?!" "Yep I'll even introduce you to JARVIS." She stopped and looked up at him in confusion. "Who's JARVIS?"

"You'll see. He's cool though, you'll like

him."

"So does this mean You're going to take care of each other now? Since Aunt Peggy can't anymore."

"Ya, I guess it does huh?" He flinched when a beam of sun caught in his eyes. She thought he was upset. "Don't worry Tony I'll take care of you too." He looked down at her in surprise as he pulled open the door to ice cream parlor. She was a strange six year old.


	3. Chapter 3

_Nine Years Later_

 _September 18th, 2008_

"Gregory Smith."

'Here it comes.'

"Taylor Strong."

'Oh my gosh.'

"And our youngest graduate, at only fifteen years old, Mary Stark."

'This is it. Please don't let me trip, please don't let me trip.' Mary repeated to herself like a mantra as she stood gracefully to walk across the stage of her high school auditorium.

She had grown up beautifully. Layers of baby fat had melted away to a slender, athletic frame. Her brown curls grown out into waves that ran down her black ceremonial robe to her barely noticeable hips. Her eyes were still green and sparkled with the excitement of a new life waiting for her tomorrow. They matched her white smile, the result of two years of orthodontia, that practically sparkled in the camera flashes.

Pepper was snapping away pictures excitedly from the fourth row. She smiled like a proud sister. Beside her cousins Angie and Barb clapped their manicured hands thunderously. Even their brother Steven wolf whistled to his little cousin. He leaned over to whisper something to Aunt Peggy, who was looking around in a daze at the commotion, and suddenly she began nodding with a weak smile. She looked beautiful with her white hair fashioned carefully in a chiffon.

The other chair beside Pepper was empty.

Mary only allowed her smile to falter for a moment as she walked off stage. She should have been used to it by now.

After dinner with her entourage of supporters and a round of bone breaking hugs and a ear whispered apology from Pepper they drop the two young to drive graduate at Stark Tower. "Tony?" The stereo blared deafeningly in the dark when Mary stepped out of the elevator. Dropping her clutch to the floor her hands flew to cover her ears. "Tony?!"

She stumbled down the hall towards the sound system. The light was on living room but Mary still stumbled down the descending steps that led down into the middle of the room. She stepped over empty liquor bottles on her way to the stereo. When the screeching voices of

AC/DC died Mary was able to sigh in relief. She dropped her hands to her sides to smooth down her royal blue mini dress.

Her sigh turned to one of frustration.

Tony was hanging off the couch, empty scotch glass in his hand. It must haven't been empty when he passed out because there was a dark puddle on his white dress shirt where it plastered to his chest. A bottle of his best scotch sat half empty just out of reach from his hand that hung off her white sofa along with his leg. He was wearing his dress pants with his shirt, his tie was tossed around his neck, and his polished dress shoes were still on his feet. He must have been getting dressed and got side tracked.

"Dammit Tony..."

She shakes her head, bending down to pick up the bottles and clean up the broken pieces of glass that was mixing into a particularly sticky spot of carpet. She set the debris on the coffee table and decided to let the maid take care of the rest of it in the morning. She scooches over on her knees to the couch and sets about taking off Tony's shoes. She grabs the tie from around his neck as she stands up and tosses it over by his shoes. She's gentle when she covers her big brother with a cashmere blanket.

She swallows down her disappointment and anger in the kiss she presses to his forehead.

"I miss them too Tony." Mary whispers in the dark. She's never felt more alone than when she flips off the light and leaves her brother to sleep it off on the sofa.


	4. Chapter 4

_AN: A little Christmas is July anyone?_

* * *

 _One Year Later_

Santa Baby played softly through the radio as Mary studied herself in the mirror. She was no Maria Carrie but she felt pretty close in her new red velvet gown. A one of a kind, vintage little number with a flowy

A-line skirt that hit just below her knee and a sweetheart neckline that showed off her silver snowflake pendant. Jimmy Huch had given it to her for an early Christmas present the day before university let out for break and she couldn't wait for him to see her wearing it when he picked her up tonight. He had looked so cute when he gave it her with a toothy grin that showed off the boyish gap between them and presented her with a messily wrapped box from the jeweler, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Another flutter of butterflies danced in her stomach as she remembered, adding to her nerves. She read that these were normal first date jitters though. She smiled as she checked herself over in the mirror once more, just in case, and headed out. Tony was absorbed in an old box of what looked like scrap metal when she walked into the lab but when she cleared her throat he looked up and whistled, his eyes growing wide in admiration. "I'm sorry, who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

Mary giggled, doing a little spin for him as she walked further into the room.

"Tony!"

"I'm kidding! You look beautiful sis." He smiled wistfully and shaking his head. "Now go put on a sweater." His expression didn't change as Mary giggled. "I'm serious. Go put one on. Preferably something large and unattractive."

"Yaaa. There's not a little chance of that happening." She spoke sassily.

"Not a even a little?"

She shook her head slowly, pursing her lips and leaning forward against the cool metal of his desk with her bare forearms. The lab was one of the only rooms that had escaped Mary's eccentric decorating. And Tony's bedroom of course. The rest of the tower sparkled under white and gold fairy lights, sprigs of holly and mistletoe hung in doorways, wreaths served as warm welcomers on each door, garland spiraled around the multiple fireplaces, and a grand tree served as the piece de resistance in the main living room. A real cedar tree with all the needles and smells that couldn't be bought from a store.

The smell had clung to her along with the pine needles that decorated her hair and pasted themselves to her hands as she placed gold and silver baubles and bulbs all over the tree. It was so tall she had to climb a ladder just to place the blonde angel on top. She couldn't wait to show off her hard work at Tony's Christmas party next week.

"So who's this kid you're going out with again?"

"Jimmy Huch."

Tony looked back up from the extensive chicken scratch notes scattering his desk like he had smelled something bad.

"Jimmy Huch? You're going to go out with an eighteen year old kid they call Jimmy?"

"It's short for James! James is not a creepy name."

Mary shook her head adamantly but Tony rolled his eyes. Big brother goggles can tint your sisters pink in naivety. "He's still going on a date with a sixteen year old." Mary was unmoved. "Tony you already did a full background check on him. You know as well as I do that he's a good guy." Tony fanned a dramatic expression of outrage, covering his heart with the flat side of his palm like a man attacked. "What?! Sis don't you think I've got more pressing matters than to-"

"JARVIS what was my brother's last search?"

"James William Hunt. The second oldest son of Claire and Jonathan Hunt. No criminal history. Type A negative-"

"Thank you JARVIS."

"Ya thanks buddy."

"You're welcome sir."

Mary giggled while Tony glared at the ceiling speakers. Tony turned his eyes back to his sister. "I'm your brother kid, going Agent Bond on the guys you date is in the job description." Mary shook her head with an annoyed smile that was interrupted by JARVIS informing them of the doorbell ringing upstairs. Her brown eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"He's here!"

Flying up three flights of stairs Mary burst into the living room and snached up her wrap from the back of the couch. She caught a glance of herself in the mirror and gasped. She scrambled to work down the flyaway hairs of her bangs and wipe away the invisible bleeds of her warm red lipstick. Tony appeared in the reflection behind her.

"How do I look?"

"Just like mom."

Their reflections smiled at each other before another bout of raping reminded them Jimmy was still at the door. "Oh!" Jimmy smiled broadly at Mary when she flung open the door. His smile faltered in shock at the sight of her in Dior and velvet but returned when his blue eyes rested on the silver snowflake right over her heart. He flicked them back up to her face when Tony cleared his throat deeply.

He turned pink as he presented Mary with a bouquet of red roses. The poor boy did admirably in not shaking under Tony's glare.

"So are you uh-?"

"yes-!"

"Just one minute choir boy."

Mary went pale when Tony dragged Jimmy into the house by the sleeve of his sportcoat.

"So you go to school with my sister?"

"Uh," he looked at Mary for help, "yes, yes sir."

"Uh huh, and what are you studying?" "Biomechanics, sir."

"What so like turning people into machines, robocop, y2k and all that?"

"Um, no, uh not exactly sir."

"I know that I just wanted to make sure you know that." Tony smirked without humor. "What you think Tony Stark doesn't know what biomechanics is?"

"No! I mean yes, I was just saying that-" "Have you ever been tested for a sexualy transmitted disease?"

"Okay!" Mary budded in seeing Jimmy's eyes widen comically. "I think we're done here. Come on Jimmy. Before he eats you like a bear."

Jimmy flew off the couch gratefully, mouthing his thanks. He tried to keep from running to the door but it was more of a quick jog than the steady walk he aimed for. Mary watched him with hands firmly on her hips and waited until he was safely out of Tony's sight before glaring at the smirking scientist. "What?" She chucked a nearby throw pillow at him embroidered with Santa's face.

"STDs?!"

"What? Background checks don't show that stuff you know!"

Mary spun around and shook her fist at him before disappearing out the door. "And put on your wrap!" The door slammed shut behind her. Tony chuckled, shaking his head as he spun the pillow around in his hands and tossed it back on the white upholstered couch. "Damn kids."

* * *

 _AN: hummm blonde hair and blue eyes? Foreshadowing anyone?_


	5. Chapter 5

_AN: Here comes the actual plot, the action starts here._

* * *

Mary clicked the door shut behind her gently. A soft sigh of ecstasy escaped her parted lips as she leaned back against the door clutching her snowflake pendant with one hand. She reached up to touch her still tingling lips with her other. Her first kiss was everything and nothing like the books all described. But fireworks exploded in her head and butterflies did flips and waltzed in her stomach making her legs wobble like unset jello when she tried to walk.

She had to take off her black kitten heels when she got to the stairs and clutch them in one hand; her wrap tossed over her arm.

Tony was still in the lab when she came home. He tossed something into a drawer when he heard her humming from the hall but she couldn't see what it was.

"So how was it?"

Her steady humming of "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty was answer enough. He didn't know if immediately recognizing that tune should bother him or not but brushed it off, turning back to his experiment. A warm concoction of something silver sat in a tube above a bunsen while the scrap metal she had seen him with earlier scattered his desk.

"What are you working on anyways?" Mary's humming died down for the sake of science. She leaned in from the other side of the desk to study the metal.

She ran a cautious hand over it. The cool chill against her fingertips gave her goosebumps. "It's vibranium." Mary looked up at her brother with peaked interest.

"Found some scraps off it in dad's old

stuff."

"Vibranium? As in the stuff they made the shield out of?"

"Yep. Good old Captain America."

There was a twinge of bitterness in Tony's voice as he took a gulp of water from the glass next to him. "I'm trying to figure out a way to melt it though. Or something along those lines."

"Melt it? I thought this was suppose to be the strongest metal on earth?" Mary's eyes flickered over to the bunsen burner.

"It is. But I think I'm on to something."

"What do you want to do with it if you can melt it?"

"Build. Can you imagine what we could do with a metal that won't break?"

Space stations, towering earthquake proof buildings, and medical breakthroughs ran through her mind like lightning. She was grinning ear to ear when she reached over for a sample. The bitter stench of vodka caught her nose as she leaned over Tony weighing down her berry red smile. Gently she sat the notecard sized slice of vibranium down and stood up straight. Tony was adjusting the temperature on the burner. When he looked up Mary was glaring at him more ice than most of his dates did the next morning.

"What?"

"Are you drunk?"

His smile quipped with such a small movement she barely even noticed before he was grinning with his prize winning, Stark patented grin that always got him out of everything. "You finally losing it sis?"

"I can smell it on you Tony. Don't lie to me." She stressed each word through gritted teeth. Tony's grin didn't fade. "I'm not

drunk."

"But you're drinking?! While you're working on an experiment?!"

He looked her in the eye and downed the rest of his glass. She realized now it wasn't water.

"This isn't some double check tony! This is vibranium, the last of it for all we know. If you destroy it then thats it."

"Oh screw off Mary."

Mary turned red in the face with shocked anger. Tony grabbed the bottle of designer vodka out of his desk drawer she'd heard him slam shut before she came in and swiged it. The stuff always made him mean, but he had never spoken that way to her. She could remember one time, when she was twelve, Tony had thrown a party for some potential business partners and she snuck in.

One of them caught her sneaking around in her little pink party dress and stumbled on his feet grabbing her arm. He called her words no one should utter in front of a child, much less to one before another party goer saw and pulled him off her. Tony broke his jaw and threw the whole party out. Now he was glaring at her as he drowned in alcohol.

"No, no I won't screw off Tony I'm sick of this. I'm sick of coming home and finding you drunk and passed out for me to pick up the pieces."

"You pick up pieces? Oh please I've been taking care of you since you were six."

"Really because it sure has always felt like the other way around. I cleaned up your sick, broken glass, alcohol stains on carpet, naked girls in your bed when you ditch them."

Tony slammed his bottle down on the desk sloshing some of it into the burner unnoticed causing a sizzle. He tried to walk away but was followed by a fuming, elegantly dressed sixteen year old. "Ya well you try being a thirty seven year old man with a teenage girl running around your house cramping your style."

Neither of them noticed the melted opaq silver vibranium bubbling.

"I'm cramping your style?! Really?!"

The bubbles got bigger.

"Ya!"

The bubbles popped

"Really?!"

The beaker began shaking in its holder.

"Ya, a sixteen year old girl singing Disney karaoke all night while I'm working and interrupting my dates that I'm supporting? That's a bummer! You're nothing but a burden."

Mary shrunk back like he'd slapped her, tears pricked her eyes. "Tony-" He tried to walk away but stopped and spun back around, arms wide, bottle in one hand, empty glass in the other, a challenging look in his eyes and a smirk. "You know what, if you hate picking up after me so much why don't you leave then?!"

The beaker exploded.


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: Sorry about the wait guys I've been out of town and starting back in school. Hopefully the events of this chapter make up for it;)_

* * *

The smell of smoke brings Mary back. At an ants pace her eyes flutter open to a spinning room. She's staring at the ceiling and there's fire licking the walls and furniture. She gasp for breath that had been knocked out of her when the force of the explosion sent her propelling forward to the ground. The first thing she thought was it blew up. The second was how funny she felt. Her body tingled, her eyes burned, her head pulsed with pain that almost radiated through her body. She was hyper aware of the blood pumping through her.

She carefully stretch her neck side to side in a daze. Tony was lying unconscious on the other side of the room. She whispered his name in a voice that sounded like gravel being run through a lawnmower. When he didn't move she tried to. But she couldn't feel her legs.

A two ton metal desk sat on her waist, pinning her bare legs to the hard ground. Panic and fear and pain rushed her brain giving her a light floating feeling. She manages to turn her body around beneath and pushes against the desk lightly. When it doesn't move she pushed harder. The room was filling with smoke and the flames spread to more equipment.

Tony still hadn't moved from the shards of liquor soaked glass when she looks back up.

She shoves the desk with every ounce of strength in her body. She gripped the steel in her hands firmly; it was cool even in the burning room. Focusing only on the effort of moving it, she shoves. It budges only an inch before her arms give out. She groans and throws herself back down.

Dammit.

Tears streaming down her face as she closes her eyes. Arms like wet pasta she shoved weakly one last time; the resolve not to die screaming at her. In seconds the weight was gone from her legs and she could feel the bruising pain in them. She could feel her legs. She flew up from the floor in the first sit up in her life and sees her red swollen dancers legs in front of her, dress ripped and hiked up around her thighs showing off every red scratch around the purple and yellow tinted desk had slidden just far enough that her toes were freed and layed there in defeat.

It was confusing. All one big blurred daze but she didn't care. She just wants out. She crawls over to Tony on shaking knees and fumbles for a pulse which is there but slow and timid in a way Tony never has been. Or is it just her shaking hands having trouble feeling deep below his skin? The room all seems to shake around them. "JARVIS? JARVIS we need firetrucks and an-," she coughs, "an ambulance."

She pauses and she listens hard but there's nothing but crackling silence. Emergency systems have been activated. There's a lock down on the doors to the labs and the garage, the elevators are frozen, and there coms are restarting. The room is still filling with smoke and sixteen and shaking and oh so alone beside her brother Mary is trying not to sob.

She's Howard Stark's daughter.

She's Peggy Carter's niece.

She's Tony Stark's little sister.

She's got an IQ of 182 and notebook full of constellations she still wants to see in China and Antarctica and a red lip imprint on Jimmy Hutch's and she is not going to die like this.

She hooks her arms under Tony's armpits,stumbles to her feet and pulls. She yanks him to the door, falling and stumbling and yes she's crying but she's still pulling Tony. She yanks and tugs and pulls and says each of the four swear words she knows until they make it to the door. Two solid slabs of bullet proof steel that seal them in like a dutch oven. But she's not done yet.

She lets Tony's shoulders and head drop softly to the floor and runs at the door, glaring hard at it. But here's the funny thing. The strange thing. The thing that will keep her up at night for the next eight months and replays over and over in her head like a dream. The door, all two tons of bullet repellent, solid steel, flies away before she even touches it. Before she can fling all hundred and twelve pounds of herself at the door, fall to the floor bloody and bruised, then crawl over to the control panel and start hot wiring, the door opens. No contact necessary.

She skids to a stop at the entryway, burning her bare feet against the floor, and just stands there for a moment. She stares at the doors in shock but the flames are bursting glass containers behind her and there's no time to dwell on technicalities. She grabs up Tony and slides him out the room behind her. "JARVIS, call 911!'

There's static as the AI refuses to speak. The smoke detectors in the hall are going crazy as smoke pours out of the lab into the empty hall, showering the Stark's in a surprisingly heavy shower of rain that weighs down their clothes and makes tugging Tony's deadweight even more difficult to carry. But the sirens of savior's in red and yellow helmets can be heard outside. Mary hears them vaguely as she strains for a familiar british accent. There is none to be heard, and when she looks up the doors to the stairs are still bolted shut. The genius girl stares at them dumbly before the firemen bust through the override.

At the hospital they usher Mary into a private waiting room while Tony goes to get shards of glass pulled out of his head. He's still unconscious, he won't feel it. She wonders if he'll remember any of this at 's lucky they say. Nothing but a few bumps and bruises. That desk could have crushed her spine, they tell her, it should have at least broken her legs.

Mary doesn't understand it. She doesn't understand the doors either. A short circuit maybe? A different electrical system for that particular door that just happened to go out. An act of God perhaps? Stark's aren't that lucky.

The entire night plays back quickly in her head like a movie on fast forward. It doesn't make sense. Then a thought occurs, flashes like lightning really. A possibility that made even less sense but still- Had she done that?

She shakes her head, waving off such foolishness. But then again. She remembers then the vibranium. She shuts her eyes tight. 'Deep breath, deep breath, shake of the head, open your eyes' she obeys herself. Hesitantly Mary looks up and across at the door to the private waiting room, dead empty at one fifty three in the morning.

She glowers at it with force until she's red in the face and her eyes are watering but it doesn't budge. Mary lets out a long drag of the stale, lysol scented air she had breathed in and laughs under her breath, convinced fully now that her nerves were just frayed at the end like the wires to the lab's emergency doors. They'd have to have those fixed. Mary throws her head into her hands as the metal chairs filling the room fly through the air and crash into opposite walls like a scene from Paranormal Activity.

Her neck ached with the speed she throws her head back up just in time to the chairs making their less than careful landing. With a short scream she was on her feet and rushing from the room. Straight past the thick oak door.

* * *

 _AN: Because how else do lab accidents end?_


	7. Chapter 7

The smell of smoke still lingered in the air when Mary rushes into the top floor of Stark Towers. It makes her breath harder as she rushes room to room. She rushes to her room first, tossing clothing into a white and blue duffle bag at random. Skirts,

t-shirts, underwear it didn't really matter to her in her panicked haze that seemed to make the universe spin around her. She's not even sure she packed socs. She tosses in pink Nikes and her mother's necklace in a flickering moment of clarity and throws her cell phone down against the bed.

Next she hits the living room. She pulls a painting off the wall of a lighthouse leading ships to safety in rocking darkness that she never really liked anyways and throws it gently onto the sofa. She starts punching familiar numbers into the safe that Tony thinks she doesn't know even though she figured the combination out when she was nine during her Jamie Bond faze. She pulls out three wads of cash fatter than any doctor recommend portion of steak, strapped together with rubber bands and throws them into the duffle; covering them with a sweater.

Placing the painting back against the nail she spies the photographs resting in frames along the mantel still strung in gold and silver garland. There's one in particular that makes her swallow the painful lump in her dry throat. It's Tony and her, a handful of years ago at the science fair. Their faces are smeared with soot from an experiment gone wrong, but their matching Stark grins were wide and enthusiastic. Tony had one arm slung around her bony, prepubescent shoulders giving the camera a thumbs up while she holds up her smoldering experiment. Most of the frames were filled with their pictures. Small, happy moments when Pepper thought to pull out her camera and snap away excitedly.

"Miss. Stark are you alright? I'm detecting a rapid increase in your heart rate." JARVIS finally addressed his young mistress.

"I'm fine JARVIS." Mary swallowed again and pushed the photo down into her bag along with a picture of Aunt Peggy years ago one Fourth of July picnic and snapshot of Pepper buried deep in a stack of paperwork. Just like Mary would always picture her. "Are you planning a trip somewhere?"

"You could say that." She spat with a tremble in her tone as she fumbled to zip up her bag. "Is Mr. Stark aware of this?" The AI asks suspiciously. Mary freezes for a moment then finally zanks the zipper across firmly. "Miss. Stark are you sure that you are in the best condition to travel at the moment. According to my readings you have an elevated heart rate, a drastically off pH balance, and an increasingly low blood pressure."

"I'll be fine JARVIS! I just-, I just need to get out of here! I need, I need some space. I need to think."

She rakes her fingers through her hair shakily.

"Miss. Stark I really cannot approve of this."

"Then don't."

She throws her duffel over her shoulder and hurries for her shoes when she glimpse a mirror. Her head whips back painfully in a double take. No. No, dear God no. Limply her bag fell to the floor as a wave of numbness and shock trickle through Mary. Carefully, like she might scare off the reflection, she tip toes to the frame and gingerly presses her shaking fingertips against the glass.

This was not her. She was not the girl trapped behind the glass and staring back at her with a matching expression of terror. This girl had white blonde hair that ran straight, and grey eyes like liquid silver that bore into her; her skin was almost translucently pale. There was no more tan, no more honey highlights, no more chocolate eyes. This was another girl. It had to be.

"What's happening to me." She whispered through the empty room.

"The metallic levels in your blood seem to be at deadly levels Miss. Stark. And yet your vital signs, aside from your increased heart rate, all read as normal." There was a pause and a moment of hesitation in the AI's voice before he added, "I can't seem to explain it."

Mary's brown-, silver eyes flickered to the staircase leading down into one of the labs. The walls had smoke damage above the trail of soot and footprints that tracked themselves through her happy home, her winter wonderland. It still smelled like smoke. She had a pretty good idea what happened. "What should I tell miss? He shall likely be worried."

Mary looked back into the mirror, then down at her bag. She looked over at her wonderland of Christmas cheer then down the stairs where her own little horror shop resided. Her eyes hardened like two slivers of steel, jaw setting painfully. The anger and bitterness filled up her ora and rolled off her in waves.

"Tell him he got rid of his burden."

The smell of smoke chases her out of Stark towers.


	8. Chapter 8

_Nine Months Later_

 _Verona, Italy_

 _"On a more tragic note today marks nine months since seventeen year old eris Mary Stark was reported missing."_

"Signora? Signora?!"

Mary flashed her eyes back from the TV to the raven haired barista holding her mochaccino with an annoyed expression. Mary shook her head and muttered a thank you handing over her red money before moving to a back table. The café was mostly empty except for a few docs from the nearby hospital just getting off, a couple to full of each other to notice anything around them, and one questionable young mother with her sleeping baby in it's carrier. Not surprising considering it was one twenty three in the morning. Mary studied them all closely but couldn't resist going back to the TV on the wall.

 _"Stark was reported missing just hours after a mysterious fire broke out in the basement labs of Stark Towers hospitalizing leaving Tony Stark with a mild concussion and broken ribs. Just as mysteriously all hospital and lab footage from that night was wiped before the police could view it. No news has been heard from Miss. Stark since."_

Mary huffed bitterly at the picture of her that popped up on screen from her graduation day and shoved the grey hood of her sweatshirt down off her head letting her lobed white blonde hair fall freely around her face. It's not like anyone was going to recognize her now anyways. The carefree air of youth that surrounded her before had all but disappeared. Her skin was pasty pale, her shoulders hunched of their own volition, and her ice blue eyes could cut diamonds. It had been a rough nine months for Mary. And it was all Tony's fault.

 _"However despite the mysterious conditions under which Miss. Stark disappeared there has been no official police investigation as it has been widely assumed by authorities that she is a runaway. There has been a 600, 000 dollar reward posted by Tony Stark that has turned up no real leads on the teen. But despite the lack of activity attempts by Obadiah Stane, close family friend of both the Stark children and their parents, to have Mary Stark declared dead have been denied."_

Mary's eyebrows rose. Now that was a new one. It unsettled something in her stomach to hear that they wanted to declare her dead but the fact that it was Obadiah pushing for it didn't really surprise her. She'd never gotten along with him before much less trust him. He would be snake enough to try for death declaration so soon even though legally it would take three years before he could do that. But by then it would be no problem. Mary Stark might as well be dead because she was never coming back.

For the better part of a year she'd been jumping between England then Germany then Beliz then Monico now Italy. She'd gone by twelve different names and spoken five different languages and she had no intention of stopping anytime soon. She still

hadn't been able to find out anything about her...condition. Nothing quite like this had ever been reported. No one to tell her how to control what was happening to her. Yesterday she sneezed and a car flipped over. Empty thankfully. What she wouldn't give to get her hands on her father's notes.

She stared into her coffee, watching the way the liquid swirled around the plastic stirrer. She didn't even notice the three men walking in wearing black hoodies until one of them shot into the air. She jumped, sending coffee splattering all over herself, her cup bouncing off her lap and bouncing off the tile floor. A women in the back screamed, clutching her boyfriend's arm. The sleeping baby was awake and crying. They all listened when they were told to get on the floor and face the ground. Except Mary keeps looking up when she thinks that they won't notice.

She catches the eye of a brunette woman in scrubs shaking on the floor. When she pries her eyes away she watches the apparent leader of the thugs pull the trigger of his 9MM as if in slow motion. She doesn't want this to happen. She can't let this happen. So she wills it not to. The bullet stops at the baristas forehead and propels backwards into the shooters forehead, exploding out the back of his scull in a wet splatter of red and pink. Somebody screams but the sound dies quick in their throat. Nobody moves, not sure what just happened but Mary knows. She looks at the other gunmen, afraid that they might somehow know too, then acts.

The second gunman's wrist is pulled from the gun by his metal cuff bracelet and twist at an unnatural angle. He screams as the bones crack then again as he is yanked back by his bracelet to a metal table. Another table flies at him and pounds him in the head and chest until he passes out. It takes three whacks. The third gunman who had watched in shock doesn't make a sound besides a yelp when the gun in his grasp is pulled away and pistol whips him in the head. He goes down immediately. His gun and those of his accomplices fly into the hands of the confused and terrified baristas.

Nobody moves, everyone just exchanges looks shock and utter confusion. No one is quite sure what just happened. But Mary is convinced that they do. She can feel her skin crawling as they stare at her. She can feel the splatter of blood on her face still and her cells begin to vibrate. She needs to go, she needs to run. She runs past the gunmen's bodies on her way out the door with the sound of the welcome bell and gunshots ringing in her ears.

She needs to get away. She needs to run. She needs to go somewhere where they've never heard the name Stark. Somewhere where she can figure this out without hurting someone. Naively she picks Moscow. They're waiting for her on the tar mat. A blonde women, in her mid thirties, who steps out of the shadows as Mary passes.

"Miss. Stark?"

Mary turnes, eyebrows furrowed.

"Do I know you?"

The blonde smiles.

Mary's unconscious before she hits the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

When she woke up she was lying on the cement floor of a prison cell. When her eyes slowly fluttered open she came face to face with a empty cement wall. With a gasp she shot up, her panicked breath was visible in front of her as she looked around the room of cement. Her body felt weak at the surprising lack of metal in the room. There was metal casing the small window on the door of her cell and around the three windows on the right wall, too tall and small for her to climb her way out of. Slowly she pulled herself to her feet, her bare feet that were beginning to turn light blue along with her fingers, and wrapped her arms around herself in a hug. Her muscles screamed in protest. Her hoodie and t shirt were gone, leaving her in a thin white tank top. Mary climbed up on the cement bed-more like coroner's slab than a bed-and peered out the window. There was nothing but white tundra as far as the eye could see.

"Ah, you are awake."

A woman's face appeared in the hole in the door. It was the same woman from the tar mat. She was blonde, thirties, hauntingly beautiful in a way that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and Russian. Her eyes scanned over Mary like she was prey. Mary pressed back into the wall, crouching down defensively.

"Get dressed."

She tossed a folded set of clothes through the hole in the door. They slid across the floor and rested gracefully in the center. Mary looked back at the blonde Russian.

"Where am I?" She was proud that her voice did not tremble.

The blonde stared at her blankly. "Get dressed." She spoke flatly before disappearing from sight.

Fear left her paralyzed against the wall but the icy chill cutting through her body acted as motivation. She slipped a black sweatshirt out of the pile of clothing she'd been given and slipped it over her head with trembling fingers. There were black jogging pants, grey wool socks, and black running shoes with it. Black and grey against white she thought, an easy target to spot. Once she dressed the woman came back.

She looked her over once more and smiled, unlocking the door. "Come with me."

Mary didn't dare move. "Where am I?" She repeated with a bit more force, not much still, considering.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Just come. I will explain everything."

The knots in Mary's stomach tightened, her pulse pumped in her ears like she was in one of those scary movies she use to like, but she kept forward. What else was she going to do? Her muscles still ached when she walked but she still tried to straighten her back and square her shoulders intimidatingly. It was useless but it gave her something to focus her nervous energy on. The blonde russian led her down the hallway in a march like stance with her hands clasped behind her back. Finally she spoke.

"We have had our eye on you for some time Miss. Stark. You have quite the ability."

Mary's silver eyes widened but she attempted to hide it. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean?"

"Don't play dumb Miss. Stark. We both know you are anything but. I am talking about your powers. You are a special one."

Mary said nothing for a long time. "How did you know."

"A friend of our facility sent us the security footage of the hospital. We searched for you for months but I must say we never would have found you had you not used your powers so blatantly in Italy." She smirked, her words coming out in a thick accent. She was looking straight ahead but Mary could feel the woman watching her out of her peripheral vision. "We will have to work on teaching you to fly under the

radar."

She stopped and turned curiously back at Mary when the younger women stopped dead in her tracks, trying feverishly to appear brave and pretend she was only shaking because of the cold. "What do you want with me?"

"Why, to help you of course." The Russian shook her head with a fake sweetness in her voice like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Your powers are quite remarkable but without any proper training they shall never reach their full potential."

"You want," Mary huffed, "to train me?"

"Of course." She grabbed Mary's forearm and dragged her through the cement double doors at the end of the hall into an open training space that looked as if it was designed for olympians. "We train many young girls here."

Groups of girls, teenagers and children, spared on mats around the room. Adults patrolled the room marking on papers in red ink when mistakes were made and nodding happily when victories were won. Girls as small as eight year olds took down eighteen and nineteen year olds with little difficulty. Teenagers took down nine year olds without a hint of hesitation. Mary took in the sights in horrified awe.

"Here you will train every day. Marcus here will work with you specially to gain control of your powers and learn how to most effectively use them." A tall brunette man with a charming smile winked at her, "You try to resist," She pulled Mary's arm to draw her attention to the armed guards patrolling the long balcony of catwalk like runways around the top of the room. They were all strapped with heavy artillery. "You will be shot. You try to escape, you will be shot. Are we clear?"

Feeling brave Mary asked in true Stark form, "I can manipulate metal, do you really think a gun is the best thing to threaten me with?"

"Do you really think you can control it enough to stop the bullet before it hits you?"

Mary said nothing. Reality was being to push down on her in a way that didn't compare to the past eight months. A sudden yelp turned their attention back over to the mats. A teenager about Mary's age had her arms wrapped around the neck of a fourteen year old choking her. Her yelped and hit and kicked at the older girl until, snap!

Mary screamed a blood curdling scream as the young girl's body hit the ground, staring into them with her empty, glassy eyes.

Her captor smirked. "Welcome to the Red Room Miss. Stark"

Mary screaming got louder as the doors closed behind her.


End file.
